10/30/2025
“If the Packers Work Against You, Why Are You Breeding for Them?”
Most ranchers agree that the packers are out for themselves.
They control the market, manipulate the margins, and do everything they can to keep the rancher at the bottom of the ladder.
So here’s the question:
If we all know the packers work against us, why are we still breeding cattle for them?
Somewhere along the way, we started believing that success meant chasing their standards instead of our own.
We have been told to chase EPDs, carcass traits, and performance numbers. But all of that serves the packer’s business model, not the rancher's. Those traits make cattle easier to process in a feedlot, not easier to profit from on grass.
Every time a rancher selects for the traits that make packers more efficient, he’s taking another step away from the traits that make him profitable.
It’s time to start breeding cattle for the rancher again. Cattle that can raise a calf every year, stay in condition on grass, and hold their own through every season.
Because the packers have enough people working for them.
It’s time the rancher started breeding cattle that work for him and for the land that feeds them both.
What would your herd look like if you stopped breeding for the packer and started breeding for yourself?
